Board Members
President - Beverly Bradshaw Carbonella
Beverly Bradshaw Carbonella is a graduate of Pratt Institute and was Fashion Director at the Edw. Malley Co. during the 50's. Bev has made Wooster Square her home for over 40 years. Her son and daughter grew up at 20 Academy Street, their former Italian Consulate home. Ever active in the community, Bev is a former New Haven Historic District Commissioner, and was formerly on the Board of the New Haven Preservation Trust and the New Haven Museum and Historical Society. She chaired the Cherry Blossom Concert and Festival for 20 years, and was on the Commission when the Cherry Trees were planted.
Bill Buick
Bill Buick lives on Court Street with his wife Katie. They have three sons, and two Airedale terriers. The Buicks completed a full restoration of their Court Street home which has been graciously opened for many neighborhood events. Bill is a psychologist employed by Quinnipiac University. Among his many activities he particularly enjoys running, biking hiking skiing, gardening and renovating houses.
Elsie Blackshear Chapman
Elsie Blackshear Chapman lives in the Edward Rowland House (ca.1865) on Academy Street, having lived for the 20
previous years in Ridgefield, CT. She retired in 1995 from IBM after working for 30 years in a variety of management and executive positions. She has since taught high school and college math and worked as a development officer for Yale and other non profit institutions. Elsie now serves on the boards of directors of several public and non profit cultural and historical institutions.
Rosemarie Conforti
Rosemarie Conforti is an Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Media Studies Department at Southern Connecticut State University. Originally from New York, Wooster Square has been her home for several years. She has studied cooking in Provence, history in Moscow, media culture in Edinburgh and American Sign Language with the National Theater of the Deaf in Connecticut. Her free time is spent as an animal rescue volunteer, reading, and walking in Wooster Square Park with her husband Chris Piscitelli and their dogs, Rufus and Bruno.
Renate Recknagel
Renate Recknagel has been a Wooster Square resident for about 24 years, first at her brownstone on Chapel Street and subsequently on Olive Street. She is a co-founder (with Beverly Carbonella and erstwhile Ralph Marcarelli) of Historic Wooster Square Association, member of the board since its inception, and served as its president for several years. Renate is an attorney, a teacher, and a business woman. She has been involved politically in the community as a member of the 8th Ward Committee and continues to be interested in promoting community concerns.
Bonnie Rosenberg
Bonnie Rosenberg is a resident of the Henry Cowell House (ca. 1869) on Greene Street. Her first 15 year profession was that of a chemist working for Loctite Corp. as an international specialist in the area of light curing medical device adhesives. After a two year sabbatical of world travel and art study, she embarked upon a new career in the visual arts field. Bonnie founded Art ARC (Art-Resource-Concepts) to promote and market visual artists and their work both at home and abroad. During this time, her involvement with a local television station ultimately led to coordinating and producing live TV shows and documentary film work. Today Bonnie remains an avid free lance film researcher/photo archivist.
Andy Ross
Andy Ross moved in 2002 with his wife Carol to the Herrick Frost House on Chapel Street designed by Henry Austin and built in 1881. This was the first New Haven home to have a telephone. It is the third historic home that they have restored in the past 10 years. Carol is a widely shown fine arts watercolorist and framer. Andy is a mortgage and real estate broker who devotes a large portion of his time writing for and promoting community causes in neighborhood organizations.
Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson has lived on Wooster Square since since 1986 when he bought a unit in the Matthew Elliott house (ca. 1835) at the corner of Chapel Street and Wooster Place, which had just been converted into condominiums. He plants and maintains the beautiful flowers on both sides of Wooster Place at that corner of Wooster Square Park. Peter studied the German language in Boulder, Colorado, Lucerne, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. He is an executive with a German manufacturer in the U.S.
Peter Webster
Peter Webster lives in the Matthew Elliott House (ca. 1835) at the corner of Wooster Place and Chapel Street. He is a theater and opera director who is bringing free, site specific opera to New Haven with the company Opera in the Streets. He is married to Mary Lou Aleskie, Executive Director of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in
New Haven, They, along with their daughter, Rosemarie, and dog, Boomer, all enjoy the ever-changing presence of the great Wooster Square at their doorstep.
Phil Holt, Secretary
Phil Holt grew up in New Jersey and came to New Haven to attend college and law school. He practiced law in Stamford and returned to New Haven in 1964 to work for Mayor Richard C. Lee on the staff of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency. Phil later formed the consulting firm that is still known as Holt, Wexler and Farnam. He retired in 1996 to travel and pursue fishing, cattle ranching, and rafting in the western United States. His daughter is a physician on the faculty of Yale Medical School and his son lives with his wife and two boys in New York City. Phil has lived at Wooster Place and Greene Street for 20 years.
Harvey L. Koizim, Vice President
Harvey L. Koizim is a 25 year resident of Wooster Square, native of Connecticut; received J.D. from Yale Law School in 1951. Koizim has practiced law, been a bank president and real estate developer. He serves on several New Haven non-profit boards such as CitySeed, ArtSpace, Edgerton Park Conservancy and HOME, Inc. Harvey resides with his wife, Ruth, and youngest son, Ben, in a restored brownstone overlooking our park.
Cordalie Benoit
Cordalie Benoit returned to New Haven in 2001 having fallen in love with the City while attending Yale School of Forestry and Environmental studies in 2000-2001. She is president of the CT Community Gardening Assoc. and has, with other community members, planted more than 30 trees in Wooster Square and surrounding streets. Cordalie is also a member of the William Street Community Garden. She resides on Court Street with her husband David.
Marianne Mazan, Treasurer
Marianne Mazan is a longtime resident and active member of the Wooster Square community. She is retired from her position as Administrator at the Yale School of Medicine. Marianne served as representative for Wooster Square on the Historic District Commission for 27 years. She currently serves on the Board of the New Haven Trust and volunteers at the New Haven Museum and Historical Society.